Category: Articles

The Davy Crockett Craze

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

Fess Parker, TV's Iconic Davy Crockett, Dead at 85

Fess Parker: His ship came in.

Born on a mountain-top in Tennessee, greenest state in the land of the free…

–The Ballad of Davy Crockett

The height of the craze was in 1954, after which we are told it tapered off (https://tnmuseum.org/junior-curators/posts/the-davy-crockett-craze). But you couldn’t prove it be me!

With the fad supposedly over, and me eight or nine years old, it still had scads of momentum. Here are some of the “merch” items that I gave my parents no peace until I owned them:

Davy Crockett marionette, Davy Crockett T-shirts, Sunday color comics, comic books, Davy Crockett plastic figures, Davy Crockett record albums, Davy Crockett moccasins…

Walt Disney had ignited a major cultural movement without intending to. He cried all the way to the bank.

Star Fess Parker got tons of mileage out of his coonskin persona.

Yeesh! If it was this intense in 1957, when I was old enough to get blown away by it, what must it have been like in the middle of 1955?  (“Everything was Davy Crockett,” says my wife.

British Government Falls!

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

Photos: Thousands march in London in 'Britain is broken ...

They weren’t getting ready for a slumber party, were they?

The British Supreme Court has ordered Prime Minister Keit Starmer to step down (“Don’t let the door hit you on the bum on your way out”) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smmmy4jY_bw&t=205s). They’re calling it the biggest government scandal since the 10th century.

No, Starmer wasn’t kicked out for allowing a Muslim invasion of his country, nothing like that. He is just charged with dipping his fingers into the public purse. (Thanks and a hat tip to They’ll Do It Every Time by Jimmy Hatlo.) Heck, what’s 124 thousand pounds?

No one knows what will happen next. A poll shows 72% of the public thinks Starmer should resign, toot-sweet.

Others are investigating whether Starmer took foreign money in return for favors granted. Tut-tut.

This is shaping up to be a serious bummer for the United Kingdom. But then again, maybe now. Maybe it’s not to late to save their country.

‘Bringing in the Sheaves’

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

[Hang onto your hats, everybody! The British government has fallen; the Supreme Court hss ordered Prime Minister Keir to step down.]

Here are some sheaves that needed bringing in! And we can celebrate it with a well-known hymn–Bringing in the Sheaves, brought to you by the Islington Baptist Church.(I got so excited by the British nooze, I forgot I was posting a hymn.)

Is it too late, after all, to save Britain? We don’t know. But we do know it’s in God’s hands.

‘Elderly Nuns’ Stick Up for Pagan Shrine

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

175 Angry Nun Stock Photos, High-Res Pictures, and Images ...

My Aunt Better was a nun. I’m glad she didn’t see this.

*Sigh* Nine elderly nuns in lawn chairs (so goes the report from Crisis Magazine) are, um, “defending” a mountain said to be sacred to pagans (https://crisismagazine.com/opinion/when-catholic-nuns-defend-a-tribal-mountain-sacred-to-pagans-something-is-wrong). It also contains the largest copper deposit in North America–hence the mining.

It’s all happening in Arizona. [Excuse me for a moment. ??? : there’ that’s better].The three-day protest was staged last month.

Well, that’s “Progressive Catholicism” for you. It doesn’t seem to have much in common with regular Catholicism. I wonder how “elderly” the protesting nuns are–and what other protests and babblings they’ve produced over the years.

I don’t think we’ll have to wait long to see what the new Pope is made of.

‘I Will Not Defy the DOE’ (100 Times)

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

Lines Of I Will Not Talk In Class Written On Blackboard Closeup High-Res Stock Photo

The U.S. Dept. of Education is trying to get rid of “gender identity” nonsense; and to that end, has threatened to withhold funds from districts where “intimate facilities” are to be shared…  (intimately?).

It doesn’t look like some of the local school boards understand this, although we wonder if they share bathrooms at home, or when they got to the Y to do jazzersize.

Maybe some of their own medicine might cure them. Like for instance, writing on the blackboard 100 times:

*I will not thumb my nose at the school board.

*I will not invade the Intimate Facilities of the Opposite Gender, whatever that means.

*I will not ride my bicycle down the hall.

*I will always address others by their preferred pronouns, even when it’s stupid and makes me feel like a moron.

How easy it is, to make this time-honored custom our own! And if writing on the blackboard doesn’t work, there are always 500-word essays and staying after school.

.

DOE to Schools: Obey the Law or Lose Your Funding

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

8+ Hundred Dollars Flying Away Royalty-Free Images, Stock Photos & Pictures | Shutterstock

The U.S. Dept. of Education has put five Virginia school districts on “high alert status”–because the schools have disobeyed a federal order to keep girls out of boys’ bathrooms and boys out of girls’ (https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/us-department-of-education-places-five-northern-virginia-school-districts-high-risk-status-and-reimbursement-payment-status-violating-title-ix).

So it looks like these districts may have had federal funds coming to them, but they won’t get that money for as long as they keep “gender identity” bathrooms–or, to follow them into euphemism, “intimate facilities.”

The districts in question are Alexandria City, Arlington, Fairfax County, Loudon County, and Prince William County.

MEANWHILE… Several teachers in the San Francisco school district “are not getting paid.” The money seems to be running out. Uh-oh.

“We will require them to cover their own expenses” –Linda McMahon, U.S. Secretary of Education.

‘Parental Responsibility’ for Under-18 Lawbreakers

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

Photos: Protests continue for third day in Los Angeles : The ...Break out the tear  gas, boys

As a newspaper reporter way back in the 1970s, one or two of the towns I used to cover came up with “parental responsibility laws,” making parents criminally liable for offenses committed by their children. Did that produce some wild politics!

As I recall it, none of these acts made it into the legal code: too much opposition. But that was then, and now is now. That which failed back then is now succeeding.

Gloucester Township has passed a Parental Responsibility Act. No one has yet been arrested and charged for children’s misdeeds. But it’s early days–plenty of time to drum up bitter courtroom battles.

What goes around comes around.

The press for a parental responsibility law picked up momentum last year, in the wake of a… let’s call it a youth riot… that ruined a municipal celebration that this year couldn’t be held. Whether it’ll ever be held again remains to be seen.

 

 

‘Watch Yer Topknot, Lady!’

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

167 Old Hair Dryer Stock Photos, High-Res Pictures, and ...

“Goodbye, cruel world” ?

Oy vey and holy cow! Remington has had to recall more than 56,000 electronic hair dryers, due to risk of… electrocution.

No one’s been killed yet, but the company isn’t taking chances. These units are purchased online and delivered to the buyer’s home. Remington warns users that there’s a “serious risk of electrocution” if the unit comes in contact with water while it’s plugged in.

Well by cracky! Columbo! Murder, She Wrote. Mannix. Whole battalions of classic TV cop shows–how anyone could be ignorant of this gimmick is beyond me. Don’t take your electric hair dryer into the bathtub with you!

But the fact that no one’s been electrocuted by one of these gizmos yet suggests that the TV shows are doing their job, protecting us from Reddy Kilowatt on the warpath.

‘Take THAT, Ms. Crepuscular!’

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

Oy Rodney – Lee Duigon

Ha-ha-ha! Poetic justice returns to the Internet. The bad guy gets dunked in dirty water. And Violet Crepuscular gets beaned–all’s right with the world!

You may remember Ms. Crepuscular challenging her readers to provide hints of a massive do-over of her immortal romance, Oy, Rodney. Here are a few examples.

Pooba City, OK: “Aw, shut up already!”

K’smagge, Eurasia: “Do we get a prize for reading this?”

Imago Humana, New Jersey: “There’s a guy in Piscataway who writes better than you do–and he’s locked up!”

Bisstong, Rumania: “I learn English for this?”

Despite her protestations that “most” readers are positively crazy about her work, we’ve got her number. You can run, Violet, but you can’t hide!

INTERRUPTION: What? You wonder what happened to Mr Pinball? No, he has not been dunked in dirty water. To say nothing of Willis Twombley, or Lord Whatsisname (the one with the big house).

You’ve got it bad, kimosabe. Try to find a health hot line.

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

INGLEWOOD, CALIFORNIA - SEPTEMBER 13: The message "End Racism" is seen in the end zone during the game between the Dallas Cowboys and the Los Angeles Rams at SoFi Stadium on September 13, 2020 in Inglewood, California. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)

GETTING NAGGED… BY FOOTBALL

This is how we know we should End Racism.

I’ve begun to feel ashamed of ever having been an NFL football fan.

Their latest caper is to post “Social Justice messages” in the end zones. Do we watch sports just to get a dose of lecturing?

https://justthenews.com/nation/culture/nfl-continue-social-justice-messages-end-zones

In case you mistakenly thought you were just going to enjoy some football, this’ll set you straight. “END RACISM.” “STOP HATE.” “CHOOSE LOVE.” “INSPIRE CHANGE.” These little tut-tuts will appear in the end zones throughout the games; and in some venues, on the players’ helmets.

Do they think we’re all in kindergarten?

(Yeahbut, yeahbut! How are we gonna know to end racism unless the end zones tell us?)

Is America losing all self-respect? “Inspire Change.” Oh, yeah.

It’ll be a mighty cold day in July before I watch another football game. Let them go lecture someone who enjoys being nagged.